Bullet-proof protective armor and method of making same

ABSTRACT

A bullet-proof armor formed of a pad made of a number of loose sheets woven of heavy gauge, linearly oriented nylon threads, the pad being enclosed within a cloth envelope, and means for holding the envelope containing the pad upon the object to be protected. The sheets are treated by subjecting them to super-cooling in a cryogenic atmosphere to thereby increase their impact resistance capabilities.

[22] Filed:

United States Patent [191 Davis BULLET-PROOF PROTECTIVE ARMOR AND METHODOF MAKING SAME [76] Inventor: Richard C. Davis, 8611 Whitehorn,

Romulus, Mich. 48174 May 8, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 251,077

[52] U.S. Cl. 2/2.5

[51] Int. Cl. F41h 1/02 [58] Field of Search 2/25; 161/404 [56]References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,640,987 6/1953 Ehlers 2/2.52,697,054 12/1954 Dietz et al 1 2/2.5 UX 2,778,761 l/l957 Frieder et al.l6l/404 X [4 1 Jan. 8, 1974 3,061,839 11/1962 Foster 2/2.5 3,409,907ll/l968 Ban'att l 2/25 3,577,306 5/1971 Baker et al. 2/25 X 3,577,3841/1971 Barron et al 2/2.5

Primary ExaminerAlfred R. Guest Att0rney-Bernard J. Cantor [5 7 ABSTRACTA bullet-proof armor formed of a pad made of a number of loose sheetswoven of heavy gauge, linearly oriented nylon threads, the pad beingenclosed within a cloth envelope, and means for holding the envelopecontaining the pad upon the object to be protected. The sheets aretreated by subjecting them to supercooling in a cryogenic atmosphere tothereby increase their impact resistance capabilities.

4 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures BULLET-PROOF PROTECTIVE ARMOR AND METHOD OFMAKING SAME BACKGROUND OF INVENTION Bullet-proof protective armor orpersonal use by human beings, has been made in the past out of metalplates or suitable plastic, bullet resistant, plates fastened togetherin some way to fit around the wearers body, particularly his torso. Suchtype armor available until now, has been very heavy and stiff thusmaking it extremely uncomfortable for wear by persons.

In addition, the bullet stopping capabilities of such prior armor hasbeen severely limited since, as a general rule, the bullet stoppingcapacity has been directly related to the thickness, and thus theweight, of such materials. Hence, a truly effective bullet-proofingmaterial of the past available types, is much too heavy to be ordinarilyworn by a person.

At best, they could have been worm only for a short time and even then,the limitations on weight have resulted in armor which in fact, will notstop high powered rifle or pistol bullets or those fired at very closerange, such as point blank or virtually against the armor.

Thus, there is a need for a relatively lightweight, flexible, easilyworn, body armor particularly for use by such class of persons as policeofficers during normal or relatively known to be dangerous duties andwhich are capable of stopping a high powered bullet or one fired at veryclose range, particularly for protection of the wearers torso. Thus, theinvention herein relates to a body protective armor, particularly usefulfor normal wearing by a person, although adaptable to protective use onother inanimate objects, and which fulfills the above requirements.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION In general, the invention herein contemplatesforming a bullet-proof pad made of sheets of woven, linearly oriented,nylon threads, of a heavy gauge, with the sheets being relatively loose,that is fastened, at most, along their edges, with little, if anyfastening between their edges so as to permit relative flexing. Such apad may be supported against a human torso by enclosing it within acloth envelope and providing suitable shoulder straps and the like forfastening it to the human body.

When such a pad is made of a suitable number of layers of the wovennylon cloth, as for example about 1 to 2 dozen layers and probablyoptimumly in the order of 18 layers or so, the pad will stop most commonbullets, even at point blank range of only a few inches between themuzzle of the fire arm and the pad. For stopping the few types ofextremely high powered or so-called armor piercing bullets, the devicemay include an additional metal plate insert, usable only when known tobe necessary, to cooperate with the pad in stopping even these types ofbullets.

The invention further contemplates treating the cloth cryogenically in amanner to increase its bullet stopping capacity. In the absence of suchtreatment, additional cloth layers, such as one-half to twice as manymay be required. Thus, by means of such treatment, the number of clothlayers may be reduced, thus reducing the weight.

Hence, the invention herein contemplates providing a bullet-proofmaterial which is sufficiently lightweight,

such as on the order of five pounds or so for complete protection, andsufficiently flexible so as to move with the wearers body, that is maybe normally worn by police officers and others who are engaged inrelatively dangerous activity where bullets and similar missiles may beexpected, but at unexpected times.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will becomeapparent, upon reading the following description, of which the attacheddrawings form a part.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a formof the protective armor herein which may be worn by a person forprotecting the front and rear of his torso.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view, taken in the direction ofarrows 22 of FIG. 1 and including the protective insert metal plate.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the cloth blank used for forming the padcontaining envelope.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of one section, including the outerenvelope, of the armor and illustrates the metal plate which mayoptionally be used therewith.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view, enlarged and fragmentary, of thebullet-proof pad.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the pad per se.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 7-7 ofFIG. 1, to an enlarged scale, including showing the optionally usablemetal plate.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged, cross-sectional perspective view of the metalinsert.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a portion of the insert.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to FIG. 1, the bullet-proof protectivearmor, generally designated at 10, may be made with a front body sectionIll and a rear body protective section I2 connected together by means ofsuitable shoul der straps 13, which fit over the shoulders of the wearfor suspending the sections fore and aft of his body, with a suitablebody encircling belt 14 extending around the sections and the wearersbody, near the waist thereof.

In this form of armor, each protective section is made of a clothenvelope 15 (see FIGS. 2, 4 and 7) which may be made of a single pieceof cloth folded in half, to form a front and rear cloth body coveringportion 16, with upwardly extending portions 17. The adjacent edges ofthe body portion part 16 and extensions 17 may be stitched together bysuitable stitching 18. Thereafter, the extensions 17 are reverselytucked into the envelope to form a central pocket 19 for removablyreceiving a metal insert plate 20 for increasing the protectivecapabilities of the armor when needed.

The envelope 15 is simply a container for the bulletproof protective pad21. This pad is made of layers 22 of the cloth which is woven out ofheavy gauge, linearly oriented, nylon thread, with a tight weave. Byeither suitably folding the cloth back and forth, or else by the use ofsuitable stitching, the sheets or layers making up the pad are connectedtogether along one edge 23 and are otherwise substantially free ofconnection so as to be relatively flexible, one sheet relative to thenext. Although some stitching or fastening may be needed to keep thesheets properly together, essentially, the sheets are free toindividually flex or move to a considerable extent. Thus, as illustratedin FIG. 6, the pad forming layers or sheets may be stitched together bystitches 24; at their lower corners and also by stitches 25 at theirupper corners which also connect the ends of the shoulder straps to thepad which stitches may be further extended to also connect the envelopeto the pad.

While the number of layers or sheets of cloth may be varied to meetspecific requirements, by way of example, 17 and 18 layers, whensuitably treated as described below, formed of stretch of linearlyoriented nylon of approximately 1,050 denier, will stop a 45 caliberbullet fired from a pistol with the muzzle located right at the padsurface. Within a range of a few inches up to a foot, virtually all handgun bullets as well as rifle bullets will be stopped. This includes suchrelatively high powered weapons as a 357 magnum, as well as low powered22 caliber rifle bullets, 38 caliber pistol bullets, and the like. Forprotection against so called high speed or armor piercing type bullets,the metal plate 24B may be inserted, as described above, giving theadditional stopping ability needed for these types of missiles. Thespecific type of nylon used may vary as may the degree of linearorientation, as this will affect the number of layers required,requiring the addition of one or two or more layers to be added orperhaps removed, as the case may be.

Apparently, the nylon material absorbs the energy of the bullet orsimilar missile in the form of a heat energy which may melt or partiallymelt the points of impact and the closely surrounding areas of the pad,thus stopping the bullet before actual penetration. in many cases, thebullet will simply bounce off the pad, without penetrating at all.

METHOD OF TREATING CLOTH In order to increase the bullet stoppingcapacity of the pad, the cloth from which the pad is made, either beforeor after the pad is assembled, is treated in the following manner:

First, the cloth is annealed at a temperature below the melting point ofthe plastic, for a short time, to relieve a part of the molecularstresses, assuming it has not been annealed or stress relieved in themanufacture of the thread. One suitable method for providing such anannealing step is by immersing the cloth in boiling oil at about 325 Ffor roughly minutes. A light oil such as on theorder of SAE 5 has beenfound to be suitable for this purpose. The times and temperatures arenot critical, but may vary depending upon the specific material used.

Next, the cloth material is dried out to remove moi ture therefrom. Anyconventional suitable drying process may be used. The object is toremove as much as possible of the moisture contained in the material,since nylon has a tendency to absorb moisture.

Thereafter, the cloth either in sheet form or after assembly into pads,is treated cryogenically for a period of time. For example, the cloth isimmersed in a cryogenic atmosphere, as near as can be practicallyobtained in commercial production to absolute zero, for a few hours.Thus, in commercial production, it may be placed at a temperature ofroughly about minus 400 F and kept there for anywhere from 3 to 6 hoursuntil it molecularly stabilizes. Thereafter, the cloth is removed fromthe cryogenic atmosphere and permitted to gradually return to roomtemperature.

The chemical and physical effects upon the material do to this cryogenicimmersion is not known. Nor is the specific temperature or timeapparently critical, the same being variable within rather wide degrees.

However, the net result is that the material, apparently the molecularstructure of the material, is in some way altered so as to substantiallyincrease its ability to resist the impact and penetration of bullets andsimilar missiles. With this treatment, the number of sheets used in apad for almost all bullet stopping purposes, may be kept on an order of18 layers, give or take a few layers. Without it, the number of sheetsrequired is about half again to twice as many layers.

After the super-cooling treatment of the material, it is desirable toreplace moisture in the material and this can be accomplished simply bymeans of immersing the material, after it has returned to approximatelyroom temperature, in boiling water for about l5 minutes or a littlelonger. This saturates the material with moisture again.

The next step, after replacing the moisture, is to dry the material to apoint where it is suitable to handle and use, and then assemble the padinto the envelope de scribed above.

There are relatively wide variances in the times and temperatures of theforegoing treatment which seem to be related to the specific chemicalcomposition of the particular nylon used. Thus, some trial and error isrequired to obtain optimum times and temperatures and even then,variations within reason, seem not to affect the characteristics of thematerial in stopping bullets, in any substantial manner.

The pad when assembled into the bullet-proof armor, in a size suitableto protect the torso of a human being, may be on the order of about 9%inches by 14 /2 inches in size, with a thickness of approximatelyone-half inch, giving a weight of approximately 2 /4 pounds per armorsection. Thus, the entire armor may weigh something on the order of lessthan five pounds.

Of course, the size of the armor may be increased substantially to covermore of the body of the wearer, in which case there will be some slightadditional weight. Also, the armor may be so shaped as to protectinanimate objects.

The armor itself is sufficiently lightweight and flexible that it may becomfortably worn by such persons as police officers during even normal,as well as dangerous assignments, for protecting the wearer at alltimes.

Preferably the envelope is made of the same cloth material as is thepad, thus providing two additional layers to the pad. Also the belt 314,may be secured to the envelope and the ends of the belt secured togetherby stitching Velcro" type cloth patches 26 in the appropriate places.This conventional cloth is formed with napped fibers which interengageto secure opposing patches together.

To make the insert place flexible enough to bend and conform to thecurvature of the wearers body, it is formed of a number of edge to edgealigned pairs of thin steel plate sections 27-28 (e.g., one-eighth inchthick), with the joints between the pairs overlapped by a narrower coverplate 29 and all of the plates enclosed with a flexible cloth covermaterial 30 adhesively secured to the plates. Preferably such clothcover is formed of wide plastic adhesive tape (e.g., about 3 inch widetape), wound around and adhered to the plates. Thus the overlapped,aligned plate sections may flex or move relative to the original flatplain of the insert as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 8. The insertis thereby relatively flexible in the direction transverse to thejoints.

Having fully described an operative embodiment of this invention, I nowclaim:

1. A bullet-proof protective armor comprising:

a relatively flexible pad formed of a number of sheets, such as one totwo dozen sheets, of cloth arranged in face to face relationship andsecured together along one edge, with the sheets being substantiallyfree of positive securement together between their opposite edgeportions for relative flexing of each of the sheets;

said cloth being of a tightly woven material formed of heavy, nylonthread, such as roughly on the order of 1,050 denier;

and means for positioning and holding the pad upon an object to beprotected, for stopping bullets and the like missiles impacted againstsaid pad.

2. An armor as defined in claim 1, and wherein the nylon material has amolecular structure resulting from linearly orienting the molecules andthen subjecting the material to a cryogenic, super-cold temperature,relatively near absolute zero for a relatively short period of time,such as on the order of roughly a few hours.

3. An armor as defined in claim 1, and said pad being encased within aflat, cloth-like envelope having attached straps for fastening the padupon the body of a wearer of the armor;

and including a pocket formed within the envelope and opening at oneedge thereof, the pocket being arranged within the pad, between thesheets thereof, and a metal insert plate, arranged within and beingremovable from said pocket, so that the plate is arranged between thesheets forming the pad and may be removed and replaced as desired.

4. A construction as defined in claim ll, and comprissaid pad beingencased within a flat, clothlike envelope; and

a pocket formed within the envelope and opening at one edge thereof, thepocket being arranged within the pad, between the sheets thereof, and ametal insert plate removably arranged within said pocket.

1. A bullet-proof protective armor comprising: a relatively flexible padformed of a number of sheets, such as one to two dozen sheets, of clotharranged in face to face relationship and secured together along oneedge, with the sheets being substantially free of positive securementtogether between their opposite edge portions for relative flexing ofeach of the sheets; said cloth being of a tightly woven material formedof heavy, nylon thread, such as roughly on the order of 1,050 denier;and means for positioning and holding the pad upon an object to beprotected, for stopping bullets and the like missiles impacted againstsaid pad.
 2. An armor as defined in claim 1, and wherein the nylonmaterial has a molecular structure resulting from linearly orienting themolecules and then subjecting the material to a cryogenic, super-coldtemperature, relatively near absolute zero for a relatively short periodof time, such as on the order of roughly a few hours.
 3. An armor asdefined in claim 1, and said pad being encased within a flat, cloth-likeenvelope having attached straps for fastening the pad upon the body of awearer of the armor; and including a pocket formed within the envelopeand opening at one edge thereof, the pocket being arranged withIn thepad, between the sheets thereof, and a metal insert plate, arrangedwithin and being removable from said pocket, so that the plate isarranged between the sheets forming the pad and may be removed andreplaced as desired.
 4. A construction as defined in claim 1, andcomprising: said pad being encased within a flat, clothlike envelope;and a pocket formed within the envelope and opening at one edge thereof,the pocket being arranged within the pad, between the sheets thereof,and a metal insert plate removably arranged within said pocket.